Great TV 2014: Not a List, Not in Order

For four years, I’ve refusedto writea top-ten list. My motives were suspect. A good chunk of it was principle, but it’s hard to deny that there’s an element of entitlement. After all, I was lucky enough to be working at a venue outside the journalistic list mines. I’ve written my share of lists, and they make me itch—so reductive, so mathematical. Also, like all TV critics, I haven’t watched everything.

On the other hand, it’s hard to deny that some shows are better than others—and I’m hardly immune to arguing. So this year I thought I’d begin my annual refusal to make a list with some comparisons. Among other things, statistically speaking, Amazon’s “Transparent” is 27.5 times better than FX’s “Fargo.” (I measured.) Yes, they are very different. “Fargo,” which has topped several best-TV lists, is a stylized drama that strips the Coen brothers’ movies for parts. The series includes some truly beautiful scenes, including a dazzling shootout in the snow. But it is the same old, same old: just another of cable drama’s nicely tailored empty suits. In contrast, “Transparent,” Jill Soloway’s new series about a bunch of L.A. Jews, feels new. It swings. It’s funny, sad, loose, dirty, humane without being corny—it opens doors. It changes the viewer. “Fargo” ’s stylish looks are certainly seductive, but they’re a charade: the show is less auteurist than auteurist-ish. “Transparent” shakes up the system.

NBC’s “Hannibal” is another show like that: a gorgeous, radical, unsettling horror series, a joint vision of empathy and cruelty. It is fifteen times better than HBO’s “True Detective,” for all of the latter’s manly charms. “Jane the Virgin” is thirty times better than ninety per cent of all network shows. Fiona Apple’s theme song to “The Affair” is way better than “The Affair.” Watch “Outlander,” not “Downton Abbey”!

O.K., I’ll drop the fake math and rude comparisons. The truth is, this is an oddly difficult year to boil down. Everything is in flux, in the best way: the TV seasons have dissolved, and so has the distinction between comedy and drama. Directors have begun to flood a medium that used to be run by writers. New variations on television keep pouring through odd outlets, from Netflix and Amazon and probably, soon, your coffee maker. Online TV is blossoming for real.

First up, here are some shows that feel new—the ones that shake up the idea of what TV can be. They’re not in order. I recommend, however, that you skip to HBO’s “Getting On,” which, like “Hannibal,” I never got around to reviewing—my biggest regret of the year. Set in a geriatric unit, with a genius ensemble (including Niecy Nash and Laurie Metcalf), it’s “Enlightened” all over again: an odd-sounding HBO sleeper that never got press but is unlike anything you’ve seen. Pray for a third season.

Amazon’s “Transparent.”

HBO’s “Getting On.”

NBC’s “Hannibal.”

Vimeo’s “High Maintenance.”

Channel 4’s “Black Mirror,” a sci-fi series to resurface your brain.

HBO’s “The Leftovers,” a weepy oddity with miraculous force.

Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.”

HBO’s “Olive Kitteridge,” a stealthy, slow-fuse literary adaptation.

Comedy Central’s “Broad City,” shaggy, salty, and crazy confident.

Of course, new isn’t all that’s interesting. Below are the shows I recommend when people are looking for a drama, once I figure out whether they’re looking to cry, solve a murder, or are simply one of all the people who live on earth, to whom I recommend “The Good Wife.” Again, they are not in order.

FX’s “The Americans,” especially after its near-perfect Season 2.

CBS’s “The Good Wife.” Please go back and watch it all.

BBC’s “Sherlock,” which stars Benedict Cumberbatch.

ABCFamily’s “The Fosters,” a warm, intelligent, and deep family series.

CW’s “Jane the Virgin,” the best new show of the year, if I made lists.

Showtime’s “Homeland,” which had a memorable comeback season.

Netflix’s “Happy Valley,” a gritty, affecting crime drama.

BBC’s “Call the Midwife,” a satisfying British historical medical procedural.

AMC’s still-trippy “Mad Men.”

HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” most likely—though because time is non-infinite, I never managed to catch up on the whole season.

(Full disclosure: I’m entirely caught up on “Nashville,” although it is objectively twenty-three times more terrible than “Game of Thrones.”)

If I were really doing this in order, my whole non-list might be comedies—and half the shows listed above are very funny. Anyway, in no order, these are some favorite half-hour series that contain jokes, although there are a bunch missing (like “Review” and “Peep Show”) that I need to catch up on.

FXX’s “Always Sunny,” now and forever.

HBO’s “Girls,” endlessly critiqued, now entering Season 4, in which Hannah gets critiqued.

FX’s “Louie,” which hits and misses in the best way.

FXX’s “You’re the Worst,” the best new sitcom of the year, if I made lists.

Comedy Central’s “Drunk History,” from which you’ll learn more than you realize (although I regret not catching up with “The Roosevelts,” which I would almost certainly have somewhere on this non-list).

HBO’s “Veep” found its feet in Season 2 and has been kicking ever since.